pistonner

French

Etymology

From piston +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pis.tɔ.ne/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

pistonner

1. (transitive, informal) to put in a good word for somebody, to pull strings for somebody (apply influence)

   S’il ne m’avait pas pistonné, je n’aurais jamais obtenu ce job.

   If he hadn't put in a good word for me, I would never have got this job.

Conjugation

Conjugation of pistonner (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pistonner
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pistonnant /pis.tɔ.nɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		pistonné /pis.tɔ.ne/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pistonne /pis.tɔn/	pistonnes /pis.tɔn/	pistonne /pis.tɔn/	pistonnons /pis.tɔ.nɔ̃/	pistonnez /pis.tɔ.ne/	pistonnent /pis.tɔn/
	imperfect	pistonnais /pis.tɔ.nɛ/	pistonnais /pis.tɔ.nɛ/	pistonnait /pis.tɔ.nɛ/	pistonnions /pis.tɔ.njɔ̃/	pistonniez /pis.tɔ.nje/	pistonnaient /pis.tɔ.nɛ/
	past historic2	pistonnai /pis.tɔ.ne/	pistonnas /pis.tɔ.na/	pistonna /pis.tɔ.na/	pistonnâmes /pis.tɔ.nam/	pistonnâtes /pis.tɔ.nat/	pistonnèrent /pis.tɔ.nɛʁ/
	future	pistonnerai /pis.tɔn.ʁe/	pistonneras /pis.tɔn.ʁa/	pistonnera /pis.tɔn.ʁa/	pistonnerons /pis.tɔn.ʁɔ̃/	pistonnerez /pis.tɔn.ʁe/	pistonneront /pis.tɔn.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pistonnerais /pis.tɔn.ʁɛ/	pistonnerais /pis.tɔn.ʁɛ/	pistonnerait /pis.tɔn.ʁɛ/	pistonnerions /pis.tɔ.nə.ʁjɔ̃/	pistonneriez /pis.tɔ.nə.ʁje/	pistonneraient /pis.tɔn.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	pistonne /pis.tɔn/	pistonnes /pis.tɔn/	pistonne /pis.tɔn/	pistonnions /pis.tɔ.njɔ̃/	pistonniez /pis.tɔ.nje/	pistonnent /pis.tɔn/
	imperfect2	pistonnasse /pis.tɔ.nas/	pistonnasses /pis.tɔ.nas/	pistonnât /pis.tɔ.na/	pistonnassions /pis.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃/	pistonnassiez /pis.tɔ.na.sje/	pistonnassent /pis.tɔ.nas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pistonne /pis.tɔn/	—	pistonnons /pis.tɔ.nɔ̃/	pistonnez /pis.tɔ.ne/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “pistonner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.